Restructuring around Standards: A Practitioner's Guide to Design and Implementation.

Foriska, Terry J.

A framework for designing academic standards and for refining these standards through a curriculum- design process is provided in this book. The book is intended as a step- by-step guide than can be picked up and followed by any interested educator. Chapter 1 begins with a brief discussion concerning the need for standards and examines several different ways standards have been described and defined. The need for schools to organize for success and the ways in which standards can supply the mechanism for enabling this success are presented in chapter 2. The process of standards design and implementation and techniques for developing a vision of standards through stakeholder involvement are detailed in the next two chapters. Subsequent chapters identify the steps to be taken in this process: design the curriculum, develop content standards, identify benchmarks and performance indicators, link curriculum with comprehensive assessment, embed benchmarks and performance indicators into the daily classroom environment, attend to curriculum details, and align instruction using assessment and instruction. The last chapter discusses the importance of leadership when implementing standards-based education. (RJM)